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00:00These are the first pictures at the first meeting of the new College of Commissioners that will be ruled by Ursula von der Leyen.
00:07Right after her, with a super portfolio including competition and the transition to a cleaner industry,
00:13there will be the Spanish socialist Teresa Rivera.
00:16She is set to become the second most powerful woman in the EU.
00:21One of her main tasks will be transforming the European industry so the EU can reach its 2050 zero emissions target,
00:28taking the block from grey to green.
00:32I think that it is also important to understand that what we try to do is not to colour or switch from a colour to another colour,
00:42but to try to identify in a crystal clear manner what does not harm our ecosystems, our environment,
00:54and how we can do it in a way that from an economic and social perspective makes sense.
01:01However, her long career as a climate change expert and her anti-nuclear stance has granted her some opposition.
01:08The EPP wants her mandate to be different from the previous vice president on the green transition.
01:15We don't need a second Timmermans.
01:17He was pushing things on industry, on SMEs, on farmers, and people were overwhelmed, so we need another attitude.
01:30Since 2018, Rivera has been one of the most powerful women in Pedro Sánchez's government in Spain.
01:36During her mandate, she negotiated the Iberian exception that allowed Spain and Portugal to limit the price of energy
01:43and calendarise the closure of the nuclear plants in Spain.
01:46But first, she will have to pass the final exam from the European Parliament like all the other future commissioners.
01:57Magnus Brunner will be the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration.
02:02Magnus Brunner won't have an easy path to be part of the European Commission.
02:06The current Austrian finance minister was chosen by Ursula von der Leyen to deal with internal affairs and the migration portfolio.
02:13But his profile and Vienna's hard line on border controls are a source of worries for many in the European Parliament.
02:20First of all, everybody was extremely surprised because his portfolio as finance minister, expert on energy and so on,
02:27never he showed up in the topic of migration with some specific knowledge or engagement.
02:32Secondly, also the Austrian government made some very non-constructive moves in the last years.
02:41They were not very helpful for the migration pact.
02:44They made a veto on the Schengen enlargement for Romania and Bulgaria, which everybody is saying is extremely counterproductive.
02:54Manfred Weber, president of Brunner's European People's Party, on the other hand, defends this pick.
03:01Also extremely important issue is to win back control of our borders.
03:06To stop illegal migration in Europe is a key demand and that's why good to have EPP there in the lead.
03:13For sure, the hearing that Brunner will have to face in the European Parliament is going to be a hard one.
03:18Socialists, liberals and greens will push against a migration policy focused only on strengthening borders
03:24and making deals with third parties to take migrants back.
03:27Austria has even called for EU funds to be used for fences.
03:32But what should never ever happen is the undermining of our fundamental values and human rights.
03:40That's at the core and should always be at the core of any migration policy and any border policy.
03:47Austrians are electing a new parliament on 29th of September with far-right party FPÖ leading the polls.
03:55Which means that if Brunner is finally rejected, the next migration commissioner could come from a different government.
04:04The European Union is set to allocate 14 million euros to the Canary Islands to improve their ability to accommodate migrants.
04:15The funds will also be used to strengthen support for unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers,
04:21many of whom lost their parents during the perilous boat journey from West Africa.
04:27EU Commissioner Margaritis Skinas made the announcement while on a visit to the islands,
04:32where he met with President Fernando Clavijo Batlle.
04:37Skinas highlighted the enormous pressure faced by Canarian institutions in the face of the growing crisis,
04:44while Batlle added that Skinas had spoken of unity and solidarity during their meeting.
04:52Between January and August of this year, the Canary Islands have recorded the arrival of 22,300 migrants,
04:59a number which is expected to increase in the coming months.
05:07The European Union has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine from Hungary's share of the EU budget,
05:15after Budapest missed the payment deadline for a second time.
05:20Hungary was fined by the EU's top court for breaking the bloc's migration rules,
05:25by depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum.
05:28When it comes to the 200 million euro fine, the 15 day deadline expired yesterday.
05:35That means that the commission is in accordance with the applicable rules,
05:39moving to what we call the offsetting procedure.
05:43So what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million euro from upcoming payments from the EU budget towards Hungary.
05:53The court has also imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day that Hungary fails to comply.
06:01In response to the fines, Hungary has threatened to send migrants from its southern border to the EU's headquarters in Brussels.
06:09It's also threatened to sue the EU executive to reimburse the cost of protecting the bloc's external border,
06:17which the government says has cost roughly 2 billion euros.
06:25The European Commission has rebuffed the Dutch government's recent request to secure an opt-out clause from the EU's migration and asylum rules.
06:35A commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels it had received the Hague's letter,
06:40penned by the Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration, and that there were no plans currently to provide the exemption.
06:48There's no treaty change upcoming, therefore this is the current situation.
06:54We have also taken and welcomed the fact that the minister has said that they will continue to prioritise the implementation of the pact,
07:03which is clearly a priority for the commission.
07:07Marjolein Faber, the Dutch politician in charge of asylum and migration,
07:11wrote the government wanted to drastically reduce the volume of migrants to the Netherlands to deliver better social services.
07:19However, the member of the far-right ultranationalist party conceded in the communiqué
07:24that if her request fell on deaf ears, the Hague would continue to uphold the EU's migration rules.
07:34Both the Italian and the French defence ministers attended the second day of the European Air and Missile Defence Conference
07:42that took place in the Italian capital.
07:44The debate over how to better protect European skies against the Russian threats
07:49touched on the military, industrial and political aspects, and the presence of around 200 military and business leaders.
07:56Russia's war in Ukraine has sped up the need to strengthen the defence system across the continent.
08:01Along with that, questions have been raised on how to support the European arms industry.
08:06But, as Italy's defence minister Crosetto says, it's a race against time.
08:10Ensuring the self-reliance of the European defence sector is one of the priorities.
08:15We are not ready to live the challenge of the times in which we have been given to live.
08:23We are slow.
08:25And it's not an accusation, as is often said to companies.
08:31It's a statement.
08:33Either we have a European industry that has the European capacity and should not depend on anyone,
08:40or we are not capable of guaranteeing our defence.
08:44Building a dialogue among key players and connecting them is crucial, and it was one of the aims of the conference.
08:50Building a cooperation between European states, European defence and European industry,
08:57while eliminating all the bureaucratic barriers that make us waste time.
09:03I think this strategic reflection is good.
09:05It forces all players to share, to discuss.
09:09It also allows us to closely associate the teams of the Atlantic Alliance.
09:13It also allows us to foster a stronger intimacy between industrialists and our soldiers.
09:19Another conference has already been announced for next year,
09:22but the debate is set to continue within European institutions.
09:26The EU has just named its first defence commissioner.
09:29Bolstering European defence and security is in fact at the heart of the next EU Commission's agenda.
09:35Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews in Rome.
09:43After the escape of five inmates from a Portuguese high-security penitentiary,
09:48the Justice Minister announced urgent audits of the security and management systems of the country's 49 prisons.
09:57If the previous government had listened to us, we would have had this problem solved.
10:01We know that there is no security in Portuguese prisons, in any prison.
10:05One of the flaws in security is the deactivation of the watchtowers,
10:09which were replaced by a video surveillance system due to lack of personnel.
10:14These towers not only observed the prisoners, but also detected any strange movement outside the prison.
10:21The periphery has to be guaranteed by human matter.
10:24There is no turning back. The human being has to be there controlling.
10:28And the national level towers are almost all deactivated,
10:32because there are no guards to work inside the cells.
10:34Where are you going to look? There are towers, activate the tower and put the guard inside the cell.
10:44There are no guards, there are no vehicles, the infrastructure is degraded.
10:48The prison system is obsolete.
10:51We continue to say that it is the only country in Europe that has joined the punitive part with the reinsertion.
11:00We cannot join a security force with the reinsertion.
11:05Because we are not guards.
11:07Our job is to guarantee the security of the prison facilities and not to reinsert the prisoners in society.
11:14This problem is further increased by the overcrowding of prisons.
11:18Data from 2023 show that the occupation is above 90% and is already considered high risk.
11:25Above the limit are 24 prison facilities, including the one in Porto.
11:30Joana Mourão Carvalho for Euronews in Lisbon.